Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Optimal Stopping Time

This is a real thing in economics. Applied to “provocative” (not my term) essays, the rule is this: When you read: “the relationship between Nietzsche and the free-market right…is thus one of elective affinity rather than direct influence, at the level of idiom rather than policy,” …you can safely stop, and turn to something else. […]

“In the Long Run, People Will Assess You Based on Policy Preferences”

I’m not even going to bother digging up links (here’s a Mario Rizzo discussion, you can follow him to Krugman et al.), but in the blogosphere recently there was a discussion about what idiots/liars people were, who used John Maynard Keynes’ famous line, “In the long run, we’re all dead,” to suggest that Keynes’ policy […]

Obama Has Lost (Jon) Stewart

Not sure how long this clip will stay up on YouTube, but it’s good. He starts with playful O’Reilly banter, but you’ll see where he’s going with it…

Noah Smith Shows the Power of Framing

Noah puts “austerians” on the couch: [M]aybe people like the idea of austerity because they think an economic stagnation is our best chance to address what they perceive to be our long-term challenges. Allowing a crisis might be less terrible than wasting it. Now, when stated that way, the idea sounds kind of silly – […]

Who Said It?

“Always focus on the labor market. Keep that in equilibrium and the free market can handle the rest.” (A) John Maynard Keynes (B) Paul Samuelson (C) Paul Krugman (D) Robert Reich (E) Scott Sumner (F) Super Grover (After you choose, go here for the answer.)

Murphy on Peter Schiff Show (Guest Host, Tom Woods)

Starting at 10:30am Eastern time, on Monday May 13… Listen online here.

Physical Determinism and Free Will

An interesting discussion about free will and whether the physical universe is deterministic, which makes me reiterate my own view on these matters. When it comes to the vexing problems of dualism and also evolution, I think belief in an intelligent Designer (I have to make it a capital “D” since I’m talking about the […]

Religious Potpourri

Hey it’s Sunday, this is permissible… ==> On old review by Tom Woods of Edward Feser on the “new atheism.” ==> Ayn Rand was not a fan of C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man. (HT2 Jason Clemens on FB, who got it from Tyler Cowen I think.) But what did she think of Narnia? On […]